Elinor Whidden: Lawrence’s Barn

Elinor Whidden

“Lawrence’s Barn”

Showing February 17 – March 20, 2011

“Standing in the present, what do we remember of the past?
Can memory be recorded or is it always elusive, filtered through an ever-changing present moment?
These questions came to me as I started visiting the old barns still standing in Wellington County and beyond.
Witnessing the gradual demise of these architectural monoliths, the idea formed to do a rubbing of the entire inside of an old barn,
physically touching every inch of it, to create a record: a memory for a time that is slowly passing.”

“Lawrence’s Barn is an enormous graphite rubbing of the inside wall of the west side of Lawrence Nodwell’s barn.
Transcribing the imprint of the barn’s surface onto translucent white fabric, Lawrence’s Barn is a “drawing” of epic proportions.
Hewn from enormous maple, birch, tamarack and cedar trees, I could almost remember the old growth forests
(replaced a century ago by the beams, posts and boards of this aging structure) as my graphite stick traced the surface of this weathered wood.
Recording an impression of this slowly changing interior space, the ghostly and elusive nature of this translucent “drawing” allows
us to see our present moment through the image of a fading past.”

-Elinor Whidden-

Artist Biography

Elinor Whidden received a BA in Canadian/Environmental Studies from Trent University, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a MFA from SUNY at Buffalo.
She has exhibited throughout North America, recently showing work in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Buffalo NY.

In 2004 she was featured as an emerging artist on CBC’s Zed TV and in 2007 she attended the Walking and Art residency at the Banff Centre. Whidden is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including creation grants from Nova Scotia Culture, Tourism & Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, and most recently from the Canada Council for the Arts. Whidden’s current artistic practice continues her quest to find a way to survive and adapt in a world increasingly threatened by contemporary car culture.